My paper in the Danish journal DF Revy is now published. The paper defines “the digital library users of the future” by describing how today’s youngsters use the internet and social networking sites when communicating and socialising.

Today : – ) (the smiley) can celebrate its 25th birthday. On account of that I want to share a little story about a related symbol, the heart: <3.

❤ is a symbol that especially youth use when they are communicating online. I have seen many examples on Arto where youngsters use the symbol when they are writing praising messages about each other, e.g. like this message from one 16-year old girl to another:

This Friday I am attending and speaking at an interesting conference called “Ung 2.0” (“Youth 2.0”) about youth, culture and the library. The conference aims at defining what preoccupies young people today and how the libraries can accommodate the youngsters in the future. I am giving a presentation on youth and virtual communities (social networking sites) based on my research. Read more about the conference here (only in Danish).

Also, I have been writing an article about “the digital library users of the future” for the Danish journal DF Revy. (I will remember to post a link when it comes out.)

Furthermore, I have been giving interviews on how libraries can seek inspiration in social networking sites. And I am speaking at another conference dealing with the very same subject at The Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen later this month.

It is nice to see that libraries are really embracing the world of Web 2.0, social software and new media and trying to design for a new generation of library users.

My good colleague (and fiancée, I might add) Thomas Ryberg, just handed in his PhD thesis today. The thesis, which is almost 500 pages long, is called ‘Patchworking as a metaphor for learning – Understanding youth, learning and technology’ and amis at describing how the learning process of eight young ‘Power Users of Technology‘ can be understood. Read more about his project here.

I am tremendously proud of Thomas who I think did an amazing job (I hope I will be able to produce something which is just half as good when my turn is up).